Lately when I try and knock out tier 4 bench thralls it’s a gambit, sometimes it works fine and sometimes they die instead of going unconscious. 4 hits with a truncheon shouldn’t be killing a named armorer, right?
I have not experienced that lately, since I have all the crafting thralls I need, but can offer this as a temporary workaround.
Take the thrall down to half health, then kite them a while, or just get out of range. Return in a bit and you can see where health has risen much faster than the knockout bar. If it’s an important find, rinse and repeat. Eventually you will KO the target.
Welcome to our community.
Since you mention you play in a private server, are there any mods installed?
Also, did you invest points in strength and trying to capture low tier thralls?
I had a friend on my server recently who was having the opposite issue. His thrall was knocking out npcs while using a two handed hammer. Turns out he had put a concussion mod on it by mistake.
I experienced that, too. And that is why I change from normal weapon to truncheon, put the truncheon back and draw it again before actually hitting anything with it. This way I always do concussion damage with the truncheon.